The old OpenIntents shopping list app I have used on my Android phones since around 2011 is no longer available on either the Google Play Store or the F-Droid FOSS Android Repository. I’ve tried several alternatives since getting a new phone earlier this year but much prefer the old OI app so was quite annoyed that it’s gone.

After a few months of struggling with inferior alternatives, today I realised I could simply pull the app off an old phone with ADB and put it on the new one.

The Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a commandline tool for debugging Android apps, but can also be used for backups, file transfer from PC to/from phone, a remote shell from PC to phone and other purposes.

Read more…

If you have a computer running on Linux or BSD, a microphone connected to it, and a desire not to spend $50 on a very small amplifier, you can use a one line shell script to listen to yourself sing instead.

Listening to yourself through a vocal monitor gives a better indication of the pitch and timbre of your voice than just listening to yourself, as the sound reaching your ears from your mouth is affected by resonating through your head, like listening to someone talk through a bone wall covered by a wet blanket. A monitor will therefore be a more accurate reproduction of what you sound like to everyone else than “directly” listening to your own voice.

Read more…